c# : find file with variable part in its name

Question

I have a folder location corresponding to the variable "path". In this folder, I have a lot of files, but only one called "common.build.9897ytyt4541". What I want to do is to read the content of this file, so with the following, it's working :

string text = File.ReadAllText(Path.Combine(path, "common.build.9897ytyt4541.js"));

The problem is, that the part between "build" and "js", change at each source code compilation, and I am getting a new hash, so I would like to replace the previous code, to have something working at each build, whatever the hash is, I thought to regex but this is not working :

string text = File.ReadAllText(Path.Combine(path, @"common.build.*.js"));

Thanks in advance for your help

If this is a console application, you could call it with the new build name as an argument. Set a variable to the argument's value and then pass it to the Path.Combine() — Jaskier
– Jaskier, Commented Feb 6, 2019 at 16:22
Directory.GetFiles(path, @"common.build.*.js") would list matching files, if your positive there will only be one .First() will return it. — Alex K.
– Alex K., Commented Feb 6, 2019 at 16:24

Jaskier · Accepted Answer · 2019-02-06 16:27:12Z

2

If you know you'll only find one file you can write something like this (plus error handling):

using System.Linq;
...
var filePath = Directory.GetFiles(path, "common.build.*.js").FirstOrDefault();
string text = File.ReadAllText(filePath);

edited Feb 6, 2019 at 16:27

Jaskier

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answered Feb 6, 2019 at 16:25

Claudiu Guiman

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2 Comments

tobeypeters Over a year ago

Like this solution. I haven't tried this code. I was wondering, what order will the files be in you use GetFiles? Are they ordered in any way? If they were ordered by creation / modified date, you could grab the first one in the array. OR in this "code" case, could you just change it to order them by Creation / Modified Date and then let the FirstOrDefault grab that first file????

Claudiu Guiman Over a year ago

From the remarks section of the documentation: "The order of the returned file names is not guaranteed; use the Sort method if a specific sort order is required." Directory.GetFiles returns string[], so if you want special logic you would need to open/get additional information on each file

DavidG · Accepted Answer · 2019-02-06 16:25:42Z

1

No, you need to use the exact filename with using File.ReadAllText. Instead, you need to search for the file, for this you can use Directory.GetFiles, for example:

var matches = Directory.GetFiles(path, "common.build.*.js");

if(matches.Count() == 0)
{
    //File not found
}
else if(matches.Count() > 1)
{
    //Multiple matches found
}
else
{
    string text = File.ReadAllText(matches[0]);
}

answered Feb 6, 2019 at 16:25

DavidG

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